1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arbiter, and more particularly, to an arbiter having a plurality of arbiter elements where the arbiter element selected to perform the next arbitration is determined by the state of the grant signals of the arbiter after the current arbitration.
2. Description of the Related Art
MUTEX elements, sometimes referred to as sequencer circuits or interlock elements, are known in the prior art. For example, a MUTEX circuit is disclosed in the textbook entitled "Introduction to VLSI Systems", by Carver Mead and Lynn Conway, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading Massachusetts, 1980, page 261. This publication, however, fails to teach the concept of enabling and disabling a MUTEX element in an arbiter circuit.